MMO Game Thread: Mets vs Braves, 1:05 PM
Pete Alonso. Photo by Ed Delany of Metsmerized
Thursday, March 23, 2023 • 1:05 PM
CoolToday Park • North Port, Florida
RHP Mike Vasil (0-0, -.–) vs. LHP Jared Shuster (1-0, 0.71)
Bally Sports Southeast
In one week the Mets will make the long journey from St. Lucie all the way down to Miami to open up the regular season. Only one more week! We will now see pitchers make their final spring starts. Some will be in the few remaining spring training games, others will do bullpen sessions, some will start in minor league games.
Yesterday Senga made his third start of the season, allowing two runs from two hits and three walks over four innings while striking out three. It was also the second straight start for him that we barely saw the ghost fork at all, but he got more work on his other pitches. Tommy Hunter had the surprise pitching performance, adding two more scoreless innings bringing his spring total to eight. He is not on the 40-man roster yet and needs to be on the roster by Saturday to prevent him from opting out. For what it’s worth, the Mets still haven’t moved Edwin Díaz to the 60-day IL yet, which would open up a spot on the roster.
Anyway, we still have a game today! Today is one of those rare days that the Mets will not play the Marlins, Astros, Nationals or Cardinals as they make the trip to see the Braves.
Mets Lineup
Pete’s back! pic.twitter.com/kCWY7uWLJ1
— Metsmerized Online (@Metsmerized) March 23, 2023
Braves Lineup
Shuster gets the start!#BravesST pic.twitter.com/6iSw8UserJ
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) March 23, 2023
Game Notes
Pete Alonso is back in the Mets lineup in his return from the WBC. Alonso said before the game that he is 100% on board with playing in the 2026 WBC.
The Mets held an event at Citi Field on Thursday showing off everything new for the 2023 season including the massive scoreboard and a trumpet in the Hall of Fame.
Three Things To Watch For
- Prospect Time: The Mets welcome Mike Vasil to the mound today, making his first spring training start. Vasil was drafted by the Mets in the 8th round back in 2021 and made some noise last year in the minors. For the St. Lucie Mets he posted a 2.19 ERA over eight starts and 37 innings. He was then bumped up to Brooklyn where he struggled a bit with a 5.13 ERA over 33 1/3 innings. He had hitters fooled in St. Lucie with a 18.0 K/9 which dipped down to a still very respectable 9.5 K/9 in Brooklyn. The Mets then sent him to the Arizona Fall League where he pitched 15 1/3 innings with a 2.93 ERA and 10.6 K/9. He’s tall (6’5″) with a mid-90’s fastball. We are excited to see what he does this season and today against a formidable Braves lineup.
- Return of Pete: Alonso returns the lineup today after being away from the team for the last couple of weeks with team USA in the WBC. Before Alonso left for the tournament he was hitting .286/.423/.714 over eight games and 26 plate appearances. He collected six hits and three of them were homers. The WBC wasn’t kind to Pete though as he had only two hits in 14 trips over five games and had to battle quite a bit for playing time. We are sure that he is hungry for playing time right now as he takes one of top prospects in the Braves system this afternoon.
- Catching up with the catchers: The inevitable happened right before yesterday’s game – Francisco Álvarez was sent to minor league camp. This was expected, especially when the Mets signed Omar Narváez in the off-season. Tomás Nido has been quietly having a tremendous spring and looks to carry the Mets until Álvarez is ready later this season. Nido has played in 12 games this spring with 35 plate appearances hitting .382/.400/.706 with three homers. Nido gets the start today and we expect to see a lot of Nido and Narváez over the last few spring games.
Let’s go Mets!
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